Chelsea are on the brink of progressing to the knockout stages of the Champions League after beating Spartak Moscow 2-0 on Tuesday, for a record of three wins out of three.
First-half goals from Russian Yuri Zhirkov and Nicolas Anelka were enough at the Luzhniki Stadium where, 29 months ago, the Blues lost the 2008 Champions League final to Manchester United on penalties.
The memories will be better this time as the final whistle confirmed a still perfect record for the Blues in Group F, and another fine result to mark Carlo Ancelotti’s 100th game as a Champions League manager.
Salomon Kalou shot over in the only chance of a cagey first ten minutes, but the game quickly came to life with two great chances for Spartak.
First, Chelsea’s left channel was cut open as Sergei Parshivlyuk burst through and laid the ball left to the unmarked Dmitri Kombarov on the edge of the area. The winger had plenty of time and a great sight of the target but only succeeded in blazing over Petr Cech’s par.
A few minutes later, Cech was forced into a great near-post save after Kombarov crossed from the left and Welliton was able to volley goalward, but was denied by the Czech.
Florent Malouda then fired wide at the other end as the game became open, and a few minutes later Zhirkov opened the scoring in brilliant fashion with his first Chelsea goal. Jon Obi Mikel sent a long ball forward and a clearing header from a Spartak defender dropped into the path of former CSKA Moscow man Zhirkov, who ran onto it and blasted an unstoppable 25-yard volley to Andriy Dykan’s left-hand corner.
Anelka soon broke clear as Ancelotti’s men chased a second, but after getting it back from the goalkeeper he failed to pick out a team-mate, and poor control from the Frenchman later in the half led to another wasted chance.
But he got a goal for his industry two minutes before the break when collecting the ball after great hustle-and-bustle from Michael Essien. Anelka then eased his way past the challenging defenders before beating Dykan with a neat low finish for a comfortable half-time lead and, on a more personal level, his 50th goal in Chelsea colours.
Chelsea’s trend in Europe this season has been to wrap up games in the first half before coming under some pressure in the second, and that pattern was again on show as Brazilian attacker Ari – brilliant against MSK Zilina three weeks ago – sent an early effort just over Cech’s bar.
Republic of Ireland winger Aiden McGeady, who had been very quite before the break, then saw a deflected 20-yard shot kept out by Cech, before the goalkeeper easily held another effort from the same player.
The Russian side’s chances kept coming as Cech had to save from Komparov before making an even better save from Ilson's 20-yard half-volley, after McGeady had played back Komparov’s sumptuous cross for his team-mate.
McGeady played the corner that followed to Ilson, who forced Cech into another corner, but a goal would not come for the hosts despite how much Chelsea let them have the ball.
It was not all one way after the break though as the Blues had a great chance for a third when Kalou and Anelka combined to put Essien clear, but the Ghanaian sent his first-time shot wide of the post.
Still, Ancelotti soon started introducing his young guns with Josh McEachran, Gael Kakuta and Patrick van Aanholt all getting run-outs of varying length.
That showed the Chelsea manager’s confidence that the game was won, and he was not wrong as another Ari effort was easy for Cech and the goalkeeper also smothered the ball from Welliton near the end after an Ashley Cole error.